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Western scholarship has hitherto described the assimilation of Buddhism in Korea in terms of the importation of Sino-Indian and Chinese intellectual schools. This has led to an overemphasis on the scholastic understanding of Buddhism and overlooked evidence of the way Buddhism was practiced "on the ground." Domesticating the Dharma provides a much-needed corrective to this view by presenting for the first time a descriptive analysis of the cultic practices that defined and shaped the way Buddhists in Silla Korea understood their religion from the sixth to tenth centuries. Critiquing the conventional two-tiered model of "elite" versus "popular" religion, Richard McBride demonstrates how the eminent monks, royalty, and hereditary aristocrats of Silla were the primary proponents of Buddhist cults and that rich and diverse practices spread to the common people because of their influence.Drawing on Buddhist hagiography, traditional narratives, historical anecdotes, and epigraphy, McBride describes the seminal role of the worship of Buddhist deities--in particular the Buddha ??kyamuni, the future buddha Maitreya, and the bodhisattva Avalokite?vara--in the domestication of the religion on the Korean peninsula and the use of imagery from the Maitreya cult to create a symbiosis between the native religious observances of Silla and those being imported from the Chinese cultural sphere. He shows how in turn Buddhist imagery transformed Silla intellectually, geographically, and spatially to represent a Buddha land and sacred locations detailed in the Avatasaka S?tra (Huayan jing/Hwa?m ky?ng). Emphasizing the importance of the interconnected vision of the universe described in the Avatasaka S?tra, McBride depicts the synthesis of Buddhist cults and cultic practices that flourished in Silla Korea with the practice-oriented Hwa?m tradition from the eight to tenth centuries and its subsequent rise to a uniquely Korean cult of the Divine Assembly described in scripture.Given its ground-breaking approach, Domesticating the Dharma will be important not only for students and scholars of Korean history and religion and East Asian Buddhism, but also more generally for historians interested in how aspects of patronage, ritual procedures, and devotional display demonstrate overarching similarities between diverse religious traditions.
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BUDDHIST STUDIES / KOREAN RELIGION
Given its groundbreaking approach, Domesticating the Dharma will be important not only for students and scholars of Korean history and religion and East Asian Buddhism, but also more generally for historians interested in how aspects of patronage, ritual procedures, and devotional display demonstrate overarching similarities between diverse religious traditions.
CURRENTS AND COUNTERCURRENTS KOREAN INFLUENCES ON THE EAST ASIAN BUDDHIST TRADITIONS Edited by Robert E. Buswell, Jr. 2005, 304 pages Cloth: ISBN 978-0-8248-2762-5 “All of the contributions to this volume are either definitive pieces of scholarship that will become standard references for the events or figures they treat, or will have opened up new avenues for research.” —Acta Koreana “Another remarkable success in redressing (and debunking) the centerto-periphery approach so deeply embedded in the study of East Asian Buddhism. . . . This thought-provoking and elegantly presented volume will prove highly valuable to scholars of almost every area of Buddhist studies.” —H-Net Reviews
CULTIVATING ORIGINAL ENLIGHTENMENT WO˘ NHYO’S EXPOSITION OF THE VAJRASAMA¯DHI-SU¯ TRA (KU˘ MGANG SAMMAEGYO˘ NG NON) Translated and with an Introduction by Robert E. Buswell, Jr. 2007, est. 432 pages Cloth: ISBN 978-0-8248-3076-2
The International Association of Wo˘nhyo Studies’ Collected Works of Wo˘nhyo, Vol. 1 Wônhyo (617–686) is the dominant figure in the history of Korean Buddhism and one of the most